OT-1931
May 31, 2019
Remarks by AIT Director W. Brent Christensen
at the IPCA Joint Commission Press Conference
May 31, 2019
(As Prepared for Delivery)
I am very pleased to introduce the Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, Suzanne Lawrence, and the Taiwan Minister for Health and Welfare, Chen Shih-Chung. They have just concluded the first U.S.-Taiwan joint commission meeting to discuss International Parental Child Abduction. This meeting was the first product of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between AIT and TECRO in Washington on April 12.
Since September 2017, Suzanne Lawrence has served as the Special Advisor for Children’s Issues for the Department of State. In that role, she develops and implements strategies in international diplomacy to resolve emerging problems related to intercountry adoptions and international parental child abduction. She was present in Washington at the signing of the memorandum. We are so pleased to welcome her here today.
Minister Chen certainly needs little introduction, but I will note that he has served in that role since February 2017 and we have welcomed his collaboration with AIT on numerous policy issues of mutual concern. He and I share a rather uncommon bond in that we are both dentists.
I would now like to turn the stage over to Special Advisor Lawrence and Minister Chen to give their remarks on the joint commission meeting that has just concluded.
